Vettel Tops FP2 Amidst Curb Drain Cover Drama

Sebastian Vettel dominated the FP2 session as Kimi Raikkonen took P2 to make a Ferrari 1-2. However, a late crash caused the session to be stopped.

After a wet FP1 session where Red Bull shocked rivals, FP2 was dominated by Ferrari. Vettel clocked in a time of 1m31.261s on supersoft tyres.

On the other hand arch rival had problems during the session we one offs each by Lewis Hamilton and Valteri Bottas. They ended up 5th and 6th in the session.
Daniel Ricciardo amazed those in attendance, he went top in the second stint but finished the session 3rd. Max Verstappen wasn’t far as he followed the Australian in 4th.

Fernando Alonso did an impressive lap of 1m32.564s and finished as the top McLaren Honda. Force India did decent ending the session in P8 with Sergio Perez and P10 with Esteban Ocon. Nico Hulkenberg who had an unlucky run at Singapore competing for the podium finished the session in 9th.

Romain Grosjean’s Huge Crash

It was the last 30 mins when all teams were concentrating on a longer stint with a tyre set. Mercedes driver Bottas put up pressure on the drain cover at situated on turn 12 curb, forcing it to come out but not entirely. Ferrari driver Raikkonen was just behind and nearly avoided the cover.

Romain Grosjean came into turn 12 focusing on the next turns hears an explosion and in the next second or two finds himself hit by the track wall.
The half opened cover hit his rear right tyre which ripped off. Coming at around 160 kph, it didn’t give Romain anything to do but to push the brakes to the limit.

Felipe Massa reacted quickly to the curb as he saw Romain crash in front of him. The car was completely compromised by the crash specially the suspension and the wheels. Charlie Whiting and crew went to investigate on making the race a safe one on Sunday.